Kristin Hopkins was so severely injured her feet had to be amputated, her family said.

DENVER — A missing Denver-area woman found alive in a wrecked car Sunday after almost a week with no food or water had to have her feet amputated, her family said in a statement Monday.

Kristin Hopkins, a 43-year-old single mother of four from Highlands Ranch, Colo., was in critical but stable condition Monday night at St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, Colo.

Hopkins was reported missing April 29 and found inside her wrecked Chevrolet Malibu Sunday afternoon in Park County, Colo., at the bottom of an embankment off a highway, according to authorities. Her car, turned upside down, was spotted by a passerby who had stopped to view scenery and noticed a glint of metal and what looked like a body, authorities said.

When emergency responders arrived, they found Hopkins alive inside her severely damaged car. The vehicle rested upside down after flying 120 feet off the highway and rolling an additional 200 feet into an aspen grove.

"The crash alone would have taken its toll on her," Colorado State Trooper Dean Enright said. "It's surprising that she survived the crash at all, and then to be down there for that amount of days without food or water," Enright trailed off.

Earlier Monday, the family released a statement at the hospital thanking emergency responders who rushed Hopkins to the hospital and to the man who found her and notified authorities.

"We sincerely appreciate all the thoughts, prayers and kind gestures from the community during such a trying time for our family," the statement read. "While we're hopeful of her prognosis, Kristin was seriously injured and with multiple internal and external injuries. Later this afternoon Kristin will be undergoing surgery here to amputate both of her feet. Doctors were not able to save her feet due to the severity of those injuries. Kristin is in critical but stable condition at this time and has a very long road ahead."

Park County Sheriff Fred Wegener said he believes that the crash happened several days ago, and that Hopkins has been without food or water since.

In the statement, family members mentioned reports that Hopkins wrote pleas for help on an umbrella she pushed out the car window. "We cannot comment on that right now because we have not seen the umbrella," the statement said.